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Press Release

New York, NY, August 10, 2012 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the University of Texas' admissions policy, saying that its consideration of race as a factor during application review helps create a diverse student body.

Robert G. Sugarman, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

We recognize that diversity is a critically important part of the college experience, and support the University of Texas' admissions policy because we believe that the University has used the proper means to achieve a diverse student body.

The University of Texas' approach does not impose quotas, assign people to categories based on their race, or use race as a determinative factor in making admissions decisions. Rather, it uses race as only one factor in a holistic review of each applicant. This is not an overt or a covert quota system, which ADL would have opposed. Rather, it is an effective and constitutionally sound way to ensure diversity, and an important step towards the creation of a fully integrated society which honors inclusiveness and is free of racial and ethnic hatred and the discrimination which results from it.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case, Fisher v. University of Texas, on October 10. ADL's brief (PDF) was drafted by the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.